SNAPSHOT

“I go out a lot in early winter looking for shots like this, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve frozen my tail off and ended up with a dud,” says Helena photographer JOHN LAMBING. Not this time. Lambing says he “was out chasing winter sunrise photos” one morning in early December and reached the Missouri River near Cascade, about 30 miles south of Great Falls, right before sunup. “I key in on early season cold snaps. That vapor rising from the relatively warm water can produce an icy fog that coats the vegetation with a thick frost,” he says. “It was about 10 below that morning, and at first the river valley was completely socked in with fog. But as the sun started to come up and warm the air, the fog started to lift, revealing the river below. When that pink came in across the horizon, everything just fell into place. All I had to do was take the picture.” ■